User Experience – Web Design – UX Design Process

Digital Fingerprint Framework™ Vol 2

DESIGN MATTERS

WEB DESIGN USER EXPERIENCE

The most overlooked Web Design elements are the most important. Web Design User Experience. Smart Web Design is more than just creating fancy templates and sharp graphics. SEO and Search Engine Marketing create a road map to relevant content on the web, but the destination must be a site that really works. The best content and the most current technology won’t help you reach those goals without a cohesive and consistent online user experience to support it.

THE UX DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

The User Experience Development Process defines a simple yet powerful Web Development Framework. Implemented correctly, it assures a consistent Web Project Development environment and successful delivery.

Strategy – The scope is fundamentally determined by the strategy of the site. What the client and users want to get out of the site.

Scope – The structure defines the way in which the various features and functions of the site fit together. Just what those features and functions are constitutes the scope of the site.

Structure – The skeleton is a concrete expression of the structure of the site. The placement of elements on the page, how users got to that page and the arrangement of navigation.

Skeleton – Beneath the surface is the skeleton of the site. The placement of buttons, tabs, photos, and blocks of text. The skeleton is designed to optimize the arrangement of these elements for maximum effect.

Surface – On the surface you see a series of Web pages, made up of images and text.

UX AND UI DESIGN

“User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are some of the most confused and misused terms in our field. A UI without UX is like a painter slapping paint onto canvas without thought; while UX without UI is like the frame of a sculpture with no paper mache on it. A great product experience starts with UX followed by UI. Both are essential for the product’s success.”

– Rahul Varshney, Co-creator of Foster.fm

WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN?

As is found on Wikipedia:

User experience design (UXD or UED) is the process of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the customer and the product.

Here is a high level example of UX Design as it applies to the development of digital products:

Ultimately the aim is to connect business goals to user’s needs through a process of testing and refinement to satisfy both sides of the relationship.

So in conclusion:

User Experience Design is the process of development and improvement of quality interaction between a user and all facets of a company.

Also responsible for being hands on with the process of research, testing, development, content, and prototyping to test for quality results.

WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN?

User Interface Design is the look and feel, the presentation and interactivity of a product. It is process of the transference of a product’s development, research, content and layout into an attractive, guiding and responsive experience for users.

Here is a high level example of UX Design as it applies to the development of digital products:

Look and Feel:

Customer Analysis Design Research Branding and Graphic Development User Guides/Storyline Responsiveness and Interactivity:

UI Prototyping:

Interactivity and Animation Adaptation to All Device Screen Sizes Implementation with Developer

UI Design is crucial to any digital interface and for customers a key element to trusting a brand.While the brand itself is never solely the responsibility of the UI designer, its translation to the product is.

So in conclusion:

User Interface Design is responsible for the transference of a brand’s strengths and visual assets to a product’s interface as to best enhance the user’s experience. User Interface Design is a process of visually guiding the user through a product’s interface via interactive elements and across all sizes/platforms.

UI design produces a product’s: Skin – a product’s visual/graphic presentation. Senses – a product’s reactivity and interactivity in response to a user’s input or different display environments. And makeup – a product’s guides, hints, and directives that visually leads users through their experience

“Something that looks great but is difficult to use is exemplary of great UI and poor UX. While Something very usable that looks terrible is exemplary of great UX and poor UI.”

So you see, they are both crucial, and while there are millions of examples of great products with one and not the other, imagine how much more successful they might have been when strong in both fields.